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Sunday, November 17, 2013

AMAZING!! I loved my walk. About an hour from home and back, most of it barefoot on the beach.

OUCH!! HARD, SOMETIMES SHARP SHELLS

The difference my weight loss to date makes..... In the past I would either count steps or mark off small landmarks, more so as I became tired. There are a couple of small rises and some steps to the beach. I would notice them, sometimes they slowed me down, sometimes I would puff like a steam engine. Today I barely was aware of them. 4.5 km and I could have stayed longer on the beach but it was getting too warm. Must dial these walks into my early morning routine again. I haven't walked regularly for about 18 months because my eye has been such a bother but .... I can handle it if I choose the best times.

ALMOST AS MANY DOGS AS PEOPLE - LOTSA FUN

Yoohoo!! ...talk about feeling good for achieving something

I did intend to spend another hour in the garden today but the day is over. Tomorrow is another day.This post does not look right in Blogger Preview but I don't know how to fix it.

Friday, November 15, 2013

This lecture session is quite long but well worth watching if you have an interest in nutritional health. Diabetes and obesity along with some other serious illnesses are covered. I really appreciated the last portion of the video with dietitian Dr. Caryn Zinn. The main speaker, Dr. Grant Schofield, is director of the Human Potential Centre at Auckland University of Technology.

Hopefully their work will bring about changes in the way we think about the food we eat. It was revealing that Dr. Zinn mentioned a little booklet printed in 1951 that advocates avoiding bread and other starchy carbohydrates and eating plenty of green vegetables, eggs, meat, fish and cheese. This is about 51-52 minutes into the video if you don't want to watch the whole thing.

Dr Schofied has a blog which is attracting a huge amount of controversy. Some people will never open their minds to take in a different scenario to the one they have already accepted. That is a great pity because we now have more obesity, more heart problems, more diabetes and growing rates of alzheimers and no abatement of cancer with our so called healthy diet of the last 50 years or so.

Thursday, November 14, 2013

I have struggled through the days since we got back from Christchurch 16 days ago. Some days have gone well, some have been stress filled, some ho-hum and others just plain exhausting and I have so little to show for it all.Today I'm making a real effort to sort myself out food-wise and set myself up for some more productive days. Food wise I'm following the Fat Fast protocol to get back into nutritional ketosis. I know this is alarming for some people but it does work for me. I have been crabby, grumpy, felt unco-operative and just plain out of sorts most of the time. When I am in nutritional ketosis I feel fine, more alert and more energetic. I would like to be in that state all the time but it is easily lost especially when away from home. I am a little fragile right now when it comes to food choices so today will hopefully help set me going in the right direction again.The following is taken from one of my other blogs and modified to fit the nature of this one.

We arrived home from Christchurch to find a medical appointment for John to go to Thames Hospital, (1.5 hours of winding road), to have a possible skincancer checked. We kept that appointment last week. Hard on the heels cam a call from Waikato Hospital, (3 hours away, half of which is on the winding roads), with the Vascular Clinic for day surgery. We only had 4 days notice and most of it was over the weekend and John had to get a blood test done in time. That alone stresses me out theses days. The background to this ....... In February John had an angioplasty, or an unblocking of the femoral artery in one of his legs. The pain went away and he could walk freely for 2-3 months. Another angiogram revealed the artery was closing up again. I went into semi panic mode because I thought there was a plaque build up and three months is a very short time for this to happen. I worried about what was going on. I was also concerned about the reaction of medical people at the hospital when they learned John wasn't taking a statin drug. He says he would rather suffer the consequences of not taking t than the horrible symptoms of muscle weakness and pain when he does. I have encouraged him to not take a statin because I believe they are unnecessary for most people who have them prescribed and I think they are a pharmaceutical con.

MORNING VIEW FROM OUR ROOM

The last couple of days along with my anxiety took a toll. My anxiety was wasted .... as it always is The surgeon said plaque build up was not the problem. The artery was no longer strong enough to stay open on it's own so a stent was inserted. This morning John walked freely again. Cheers!!! No-one mentioned the statin word although one nurse advised John he must take a whole aspirin everyday. He's been taking a 1/2 tablet every second day otherwise he gets awful bruising and every time he gets a tiny skin abrasion he bleeds madly. He will continue with what he's been doing and I am suggesting that when he has blood tests in abut 6 months he will probably be able to stop taking all the aspirin too. I can't see the point if he's healthy. I guess they have to advise according to the set protocol ... We are being treated like peas in a pod instead of individuals. What happened to good medicine?I am paying the price for all my anxiety and travelling. Feel slightly better now that I've had my first cup of keto coffee since Monday morning, (today is Thursday, 8 am). I had been craving sugar in my coffee and last night was looking for a high carb hit.... only nuts and chilli flavoured rice crackers available so not too much damage done.Tuesday it was nearly 7 am when we left home. I had been up since around 5 am after sleeping poorly. I made a kumera, (sweet potato), and broccoli frittata ..... more like an American casserole, with 10 eggs, bacon and cream cheese. Because it came straight out of the oven in time to leave the house I took it all with us ... enough to feed 10 people. We had time to go to a Cafe for breakfast before going to the hospital at 11 am. We had beautifully served Eggs Benedict on gluten free toast. At the hospital, and after the usual being sent from here to there and hanging around, John went off to Day surgery and I went to a waiting room. The waiting was tedious, about 2 hours in a room of chatty people with TV running background interference. I tried to turn off all of this, and stay absorbed in my Michael Connelly book, which was not too hard most of the time. John had about 4 more hours to stay quiet. The list of care for day surgery includes food. They offered John a sandwich, "gotta have some carbs!" Fortunately I'd packed our normal lunch food of salami, olives etc. so John did not need to starve. But because food is on the list he was offered icecream and jelly which being a man he was delighted to eat Once they'd made sure there was no immediate risk of haemorrhage we went to the studio flat, hospital accommodation for out-of towners, we had booked. It was OK but again I didn't sleep well.. hospital beds, plastic pillows and all that, but lovely view from large windows. Next time we will go to a decent motel. We were able to take our time yesterday morning and I had Nestlé coffee sachets and frittata for breakfast before leaving to visit my sister. She had a nice ham salad for our lunch and I was fine when we left about 2 pm, although I was feeling tired. We still had 3 hours travelling plus a stop for groceries. I began to lose the plot and felt really grumpy as John drove the twisty roads through the hills. Exhaustion was setting in, my eye was aching and it was too warm in the car. We had a lovely sunny day but the car has no AC.

Finally we pulled in at home to find a campervan had parked up. We have advertised our place as a 'Park-Over-Property' in the absence of a campground in our area. We love meeting folk who travel but it was too much for me. I don't know where John got his energy from but I guess he was still on a bit of a high after finally getting some real relief from the discomfort in his leg.I concentrated on putting away groceries, cooking some sausages to go with heated frittata and getting in another cup of coffee. I couldn't get into bed fast enough.This week is also birthday week for our three sons. Somehow I never got their cards in the mail on time and I never called them on the phone either. It all seems rather flat. Mother's are not supposed to get this sort of thing in a muddle. The only thing I got close to right was putting birthday money into their accounts electronically but how boring is it to receive your birthday gift that way. Of course we have no choice for the one in prison. We are not allowed to send parcels unless they are requested by the inmate. This is one of the ways they monitor what is coming in.

Monday, November 4, 2013

I Guess many of you guys will think me weak, silly and pathetic, but honestly, other than that, I hope I'm a nice guy,

I'm 52, just !

I'm very very happily married, we have a 23 year old butter of a son, he's the apple of our eye,

My darling wife is the sweetest, kindest, most understanding person EVER to have walked this earth, and to me the MOST Beautiful too,

OK, you get the picture, All is perfect.

OK except I'm in a wheelchair now, I have to take phone number quantities of drugs each day, just to take the edge from the PAIN I am and never will be free of,

Why ? Well the truth is that almost 19 years of excuses, no real effort, and leaving things too late, I am amongst many other things a Type 2 Diabetic, with almost an entire collection of complications of the Diabetes,

I sit here in the dark, at 6.49 am in terrible pain having had less than an hour's sleep, and I'm balling my eyes out, crying like a new born baby because I'm SCARED,

I'm dying, amongst many things it's due to Diabetic Autonomic Neuropathy, I also have End Organ Damage, and a multitude of other problems,

It's too late for me, I can't be saved,

So WHY am I here now ?

Really because I needed to scream, and I guess to warn you all, PLEASE look after yourselves, DON'T let you'd Diabetes get out of control, be GOOD, be SAFE,

I had a friend who died about 25 years ago so she was probably not yet 60 years old. I'm not sure whether she was Type 1 or 2 diabetic and her symptoms were aggravated by the genetic disease Muscular Dystophy similar to MS.

All the time I knew her she suffered with neuropathy and the threat of having one foot or another amputated because ulcers would not heal. She was such a sweet and wonderful person I still miss her. She was careful with her food and her medication but I wonder how she would have reacted to the science we now have regarding elimination of grains and eating good meats in her diet. I remember watching her eating a white bread sandwich filled with a slice of luncheon sausage for her lunch. That was her protein potion!

Another friend died in the 90s after contracting diabetes 2 and although his wife followed the dietary guidelines carefully he went on to lose both legs and die within a few years. I believe he drank a lot of fizzy drinks. Again I am fairly certain he died well before his 60th birthday.

Back then these were fairly isolated deaths but what are we heading into these days with people becoming diabetic so young and being advised to eat plenty of whole grains?

There is a lot of grief ahead for some families.

Diabetes is an evil disease and so avoidable for most people.

On a happier note .....

I have recovered from our 6 weeks away. My weight is back where it was when we left and my fasting blood ketones are at 1.7 after only 5 days. That's very good.

It's a gorgeous day here and although showers are forecast they will have to come out of the blue. I have nearly finished here on my laptop so I am going for a walk before lunch. Yay! to walk on the beach, first time in many months.

HOW'S THIS FOR A CAMPER .....
DEFINITELY NOT A MAGGOT AS NZ WEATHERMAN, JIM HICKEY,
DESCRIBES THE PLETHORA OF WHITE CAMPERS COMMONLY DRIVEN BY TOURISTS

Saturday, November 2, 2013

This series of videos is illuminating. In 1967 I was a young mother expecting my 2nd child. I was also an emotional mess for reasons that are too complex for this post. Simply said our first child was a crying baby and I now suspect that our diet was largely to blame. He also was dyslexic and all was blamed on being born slightly blue from lack of oxygen at birth but I think there is a much simpler explanation and that is, we are all wheat intolerant. Nobody guessed at that in 1967. We had a diet high in wheat. Sandwiches made with bread or baked beans on toast was our mainstay at lunch. I ate cereal sometimes with canned fruit for breakfast. And I loved to bake although I soon learned that I was eating most of what I baked and there did come a day when I stopped baking because if I didn't eat it, it went stale in the tins.

I always thought I had a weight problem but it was not until I was put on an anti-depressant that I began to lose control. The sad thing is I had a nice womanly figure. I was not overweight until depression entered my life and this was definitely related to female hormones. Back then no-one was talking about female hormone imbalances and we were expected to live with whatever the consequences and stop moaning. I once went to a specialist in women's health, the only kind I knew about was a gynecologist. The help he offered was ludicrous. Have a hysterectomy!!! What the?????
Thus began my disillusionment with the medical profession.

There are moments in the video which are out of step with today such as the suggestion of using saccharine as a sweetener and the authoritarian attitude of the doctor but we would all benefit from a modern version of this message .... don't you think?

How far we have come from the truth with our nutritional teaching.

Today we are told to avoid all natural fat, especially saturated or animal fat.

Today we are told to eat lots of grains which are starches.

Today diabetics are put on what I would call a low fat, high starch diet. Is that not the very thing which contributes to weight gain and diabetes, not to mention heart disease.

How did we get it so wrong when in 1967 we had it so right?

That's a mere 45 years ago. In biblical terms that's a generation.

God help us come to our senses.

It's not too late.

AT THE PALMS MALL IN CHRISTCHURCH

We watched this child play with her balloon octopus while we had coffee in a Café overlooking the courtyard. It was quite windy and at one stage they had the balloons anchored to a chair. It may not be one of my best photos but it is the first time I have ever asked a stranger if I could take a photo. I did ask the parents to have the child facing her Dad for what it's worth security wise. In the background is another restaurant and bar celebrating Oktoberfest. The staff were dressed Bavarian style in white stockings, short skirts for the women and halter top shorts for the men. I believe everyone had a great time. They certainly sounded as though they were enjoying themselves.

"THE PAIN OF DISCPLINE OR THE PAIN OF REGRET AND DISAPPOINTMENT" - IT'S MY CHOICE

DISCIPLINE EQUALS FREEDOM

About Me

I am in my 78th year and live in New Zealand. In 2013 my husband, John, and I spent our 50th Wedding Anniversary in Hawaii. We have a major trip to North America planned for 2018
I have a long history of losing and gaining weight. I first began keeping an on-line journal around 2000 as a way to record my weight loss and quest for better health.
We moved to Christchurch in December 2015 to be near our only Grandchild. Ava -Jane is a wonderful gift to our family.
Life is full of the unexpected.
I am all about having some fun times this year.